I made it! Surgery went great.

Here’s my favorite things from my latest adventure:
1) The anesthesiologist came with her tray of champagne, her words, it really was tequila shots. Lights out quicker than I could say “see ya later.”
2) The day before surgery I received a pedicure … day of Pete, my husband, had to remove my new polish. They check for circulation through your toes. Now you know.
3) The people that surrounded me, picked me up, covered me in kindness and took care of my family and me during this time. I have so much gratitude!

Recovery is progressing as planned ~ slowly. Meaning I have spent a lot of time in my recliner … A. LOT. of. TIME.

For many entrepreneurs, their business is their life. Life can teach us lessons about business. In my experience, most business owners are firefighters. They like solving problems and typically get a rush from fixing things! There usually is a small or raging fire that gets their complete attention, from equipment, accounting, staffing, inventory or sales, and rightfully so, if they don’t put out the fire, who will?

I was at a dinner party two weeks ago. It was exciting to get out of the house for an adult evening. Someone asked me {kindly} what exactly I was doing with all my time. Lots of computer time, social media, reading and a whole lot of being still.

Folks, I am here to tell you. After staying in the same spot for a while, you start to notice things. Little things like dust under the TV stand and big things like schedules, strategies, systems and relationships.

In the stillness. In the quiet. A new perspective emerged.

What an interesting idea for business leaders and owners. How often do we sit still? How often do we take the time to seek new perspective? Fresh perspective can come from new employees, new business partners, customers, but it also needs to come from you. The person who lives and breathes the business. The business that is your life. Imagine the possibilities. Take the time to be still and see things differently.

Personally, I can’t wait to get off the bench and start applying a fresh, new perspective.

Last week’s game in which the St. Louis Rams special teams faked the punt against the Seattle Seahawks to help win the game, highlights the strategic importance of specialization, and believe it or not this type of strategy can be applied to teams in the workplace.

Special teams are some of the most overlooked in football. They can however, make the difference in controlling the game. Their moving the advantage up and down the field can lead to the big win. They are specialized and trained in their purpose. Whether punting the ball deep, keeping the opponent in a poor field position or making those final, last second field goals – they do something that the rest of the team cannot.

What makes special teams special? Practice, training, more practice, more training.

In this age of Do it Yourself (DYI), technology provides instruction on pretty much anything. Google has become the “go to” for immediate answers on how to accomplish an unknown task. No longer do we have to slog through piles of research. We can learn anything from how to reupholster a chair, how to tweet or learn how to sharpen our Excel skills. It’s great to be able to have access to this wealth of knowledge. But it does not guarantee the level of proficiency that only time, focus and mentoring can provide.

In order to create a winning strategy, become a leader and grow your small business, remember you can’t be all things to all people. It is critical to know when to call in the special teams.

You may only call on your experts for such specialized projects such as branding and marketing strategy and execution or human resources. As your business grows and time becomes more precious, you may use those special teams on a more permanent outsourcing basis to keep your eye on growth and innovation.

Whatever the case, when you need a game changer, call in special teams.

What does it mean to be an entrepreneur? These eight innocent words are like loaded dice.

The word entrepreneur immediately brings to mind some obvious choices: Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Melinda Gates has also earned her own place at the table with her philanthropic and global development efforts via the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

These folks are true forces of nature.

What landed them in this spot?

Talk to any successful entrepreneur and you will notice familiar traits. Entrepreneurs are driven by passion, not money. According to Tony Hsieh, founder and CEO of Zappos, “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will follow you.”

There is a myriad of research, articles and opinions citing successful traits of an entrepreneur. Most are variations of the same them:

• Passion
• Imagination
• Vision
• Tenacity
• Self Confidence
• Resilience

All packed with determination, perseverance and huge dollop of grit.

Lest you think it a glamorous endeavor, being an entrepreneur also means late nights, early mornings and everything in between. But the rewards of watching your vision come to life and grow supercede all else.

According to Eric T Wagner to be a successful entrepreneur is to, “Think Big and be Bold.” We would tend to agree.

Do you have what it takes?

It is all rockin’ on the porch!

team

noun

: a group of people who compete in a sport, game, etc., against another group

: a group of people who work together

: a group of two or more animals used to pull a wagon, cart, etc.

²team

adjective

: of or performed by a team <a team effort>; also : marked by devotion to teamwork rather than individual achievement <a team player>

verb

: to bring together (two people or things)

This past week marked the first team retreat for Front Porch Marketing. Led by our Chief Rocker, our event was an inspiring forum for creativity, innovation, processes and process improvement (oh, and world domination).

It made me ponder a little bit about what teams look like in today’s business environment.

As you can see from the definitions above, the word “team” is a noun, adjective or verb. But, what does that mean to us?

There are huge benefits in working as a team. When teams work well, each member feels they are contributing towards a shared goal. The shared knowledge and camaraderie forges (or frays) are the ties that link us together.

There is also a shared accountability for the success or failure of each project.

But, what do teams look like today? By definition, all of us are part of a team of some sort. For small businesses, there is an ebb and flow to the group. Some work in virtual teams, i.e. depending on the goal, project or time of year, individuals or groups come in and out of a project/initiative/account. This creates an efficient working structure and high value to the customer/client.

Whatever your team looks like, just remember – we’re all in it together!

Make Waves … I remember the email that started it all, seems like only yesterday …

Patti Johnson, CEO and founder of PeopleResults, sent it a few short years ago.

She hired a company to assist her in redesigning and updating her company’s website and received round three or four of creative. She forwarded the concepts to me to get my opinion and eventually partnered with Front Porch Marketing to manage the project.

First step, we had several brand strategy meetings to outline the PeopleResults brand architecture.

Next step, we used the brand strategies to drive the website creative.

Along that journey, we recommended:

• Adding a blog to the site ~ you can subscribe to it here. It ROCKS!
• Then, defining the social media strategy for the brand and the individual partners
• Conducting team and individual social media training
• Creating a social media content calendar and blog schedule
• Developing a team marketing bar where team members could present their individual marketing ideas and several other initiatives, but trying to keep this brief

And, the rest is history.

We initiated change with smart, concise thinking tailored for key personalities at PeopleResults: the PeopleResults Partners. From there, the strategies were clear, and together we built fresh path forward for the leadership team and brand.

Patti recently credited me for starting her journey that resulted in, “Make Waves: Be the One to Start Change at Work and in Life.” For that, I am very honored and humbled. It was a team effort though. Without her courageous leadership, a trusted, two-way partnership and the willingness of the leadership team, it wouldn’t have happened.

The book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Indie Bound and Walmart.

Wave Maker out!

One of my favorite movies of the year is Jobs. Who doesn’t like to watch Ashton Kutcher on any screen … sorry I digress …

They had me at, “Don’t be better. Be different.”The. Best. Marketing. Advice. ITHOE. 

In a few critical points in product development, Jobs calls in Steve Wozniak, to help him develop a new product for Atari (that was 1980 somethin’), reinvent the Macintosh, etc.

It got me thinking.

Who is my Woz? Everyone needs one (or 10) Wozs on their team.

Here are a few roles a Woz can play:

1. Whiz Bang Woz – The creative genius you run a situation or opportunity by, or pass off to, and they come up with THE brilliant idea
2. Practical Woz – The one who tells you, “They didn’t call your baby ugly.” Enough said.
3. Relationship Woz – The one who is your people person. Always looking at how thing are interpreted and will play out from the people side of the business.
4. Financial Woz – The one who asks you the real numbers questions. You may not like the questions they ask but know the answer. Thank goodness for these folks.
5. Work Life Woz – The one who reminds you to keep it real. The voice that is the same in your head. Work is for work. Enjoy and be present with your family.

Have them in your iPhone contacts and you are good to go.

It was homework for our team members to watch this movie.

One comment was, “Steve wasn’t a nice man.”

Truth. Sometimes the best business owners or leaders are not nice but they are smart enough to surround themselves with folks to remind them to be or they let others lead the people part of the business.

Have you met the Rockette and The Rock?

Julie Porter is the Chief Rocker at Front Porch Marketing. You can follow her or her company on Twitter @JulieDPorter01 and @ItsFrontPorch and Instagram @Julie_Porter and @ItsFrontPorch. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at julie@itsfrontporch.com.